Tag Archives: wedding

“Bride & The City” Brunch at The W San Diego August 9th

Calling all brides-to-be: The W San Diego Hotel will be hosting a lovely brunch at 10am, followed by the Elle Bridal Boutique Fashion Show on Sunday August 9th, 2015. I’ve always found these types of events to be very helpful when trying to plan for a wedding because there’s SO much to manage regarding one of the biggest events in your life. Why not gather as much help and information as you can get, directly from experts?

If you’re interested in attending, tickets can be purchased at the following link: www.thewsandiegohotel.com/brideandthecity

Cheers!

#SaveTheSparkle: What Happens AFTER The Wedding?

I was recently asked by Wayfair.com to share a story on how I continue to #SaveTheSparkle with my wedding and engagement rings, especially now that it’s well after the nuptual events. I actually wear my rings daily and only take them off at home because of chores that involve water like laundry, washing dishes or bathing our son. If I do have to clean anything using abrasives, I’m wearing gloves. This keeps cleaning my rings to a minimum, and they shine just as brightly as they did when we first got engaged and then married.

But I think #SaveTheSparkle can also apply to how we keep the sparkle in our marriage alive, and we do it by taking the time to incorporate what we love to do individually, into something we can do together. For instance, the picture collage above is from this weekend, where we celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary. My husband, Deon, had a golf tournament on our actual anniversary. So we had my mom watch our boy and had a mini-holiday to celebrate our anniversary a day early with a lovely dinner out at a restaurant in Irvine, close to the golf course where he would play the following day. This way, we still celebrated together, and he gets to do something he loves. While at his tournament, I took the time to roam around Irvine and Costa Mesa, found an awesome record shop and got in some shopping. I then had a quick dinner and read a book until it was time to pick up my tournament winning husband (see his winning result here)! We were so happy at the end of our weekend because no matter what, spent it together. We continue to do just that, turn events like his amateur golf tournaments (or golf playing in general) into full weekends, either alone as a couple or with our son. In fact, they’ve become fun adventures, and you can find a few of them right here on my blog (like here, here and here)!

How do YOU #SaveTheSparkle? Share your story in the comments below, or check out the hashtag to see how others are saving the sparkle!

Styling a "Destination Downton" Wedding for Lover.ly!

Destination Downton for Lover.ly by any2ndnow

Season 5 of Downton Abbey has just started. My best friend Janice and I have discussed what it would be like to plan a wedding there because we recently found out that Highclere Castle (the location of Downton Abbey), would be available not only for tours, but for engagement parties, receptions and weddings! If I could do it all again and plan another wedding to my loving hubby, I would invite a small party and have it at Highclere Castle. So it was perfect timing to be contacted by the folks at Lover.ly to choose and style my ideal wedding dress for my dream destination wedding.

Lover.ly is your one-stop-shop for wedding planning where brides and grooms find ideas, people to hire and things to buy.

I’m very partial to dresses with a slight sleeve. But because my dream wedding would be at Highclere Castle, I also wanted a wedding dress that looked like it was straight out of the 1920’s. With that in mind, I actually chose two dresses because of the different retro feel of each and styled everything through Lover.ly. What’s great about Lover.ly is that it truly is a “one-stop-shop” for all wedding needs, and their search feature provided me with so many options on gowns, accessories, shoes and everything you need to complete your ultimate dream wedding day. It’s really up to you on how you want to design it, and with Lover.ly, you are only limited by your imagination. Thanks again to the folks at Lover.ly for this fun styling challenge, and I’m definitely recommending them to friends who want an easy and fun way to plan their future weddings!

Sian Gown
lover.ly

BHLDN Addison Heels
lover.ly

Kate Spade Florentina Ankle booties
lover.ly

Nina ‘Maize’ Birdcage Veil
lover.ly

GlamHouse Bridal Crystal Bridal Headband
lover.ly

French Tip Nail With Stamp Design
pinterest.com

Phil Glew Photography
philglewphotography.co.uk

Highclere Castle Wedding From Mighty Fine Blog
mfent.co.uk

Elyse Gown w/ Jacket
lover.ly

Lia Couture Bouquet
lover.ly

Vintage Chanel Gold Wave Mademoiselle Bag
lover.ly

Love In The First Degree

A few weekends ago, my mom, hubby and I all made the trek to Laguna Beach to witness the nuptials of my cousin Paul to his beautiful bride, Carol. Other than my own wedding, this was one of the most beautiful and fun weddings I have ever been to. It started off quite simple with drinks in the lobby of Seven-Degrees (an “idea lab”) leading to a beautiful ceremony. Once we finished hors d’oeuvre during the cocktail hour, we began dinner with a viewing of their rock-star-like wedding video (edited that day) and ended the night with a sparkler send off and the happy couple racing away in one of their two Lotuses. It was quite the magical evening, by any degree. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well!

Our lovely place cards.

Carol with her father, in a gorgeous gown.

My mom, me and Deon with newlyweds.

Carol and Paul with his parents, grandmother and brother, Patrick.

Us girls and our boys.

Aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, and grandparents.

I loved the lighting, flowers and table settings.

In addition to the TVs throughout the reception, there were these little ornaments with tiny cameras in them, showcasing a slide show of the couple’s engagement photos.

With my hubby.

Fun photos with my cousins.

The couple was given cakes modeled after their cars by their friends, but they also had their traditional wedding cake.

A sparkler send-off, as they drive away in Carol’s white Lotus (the last three photos were taken by my cousin Imelda and her husband Robert).

I Want Somebody to Share, Share the Rest of My Life

A couple of weekends ago, my family travelled up to Palmdale to share a special day with my younger cousin, CJ. He married the love of his life, Jaime and they had a beautiful travel themed wedding. I’ll just let the photos speak for themselves. Hope you all had a great Father’s Day weekend!

(The title of this post are lyrics from the song Somebody by Depeche Mode.)

Something Blue

As a part of the whole romantic theme surrounding Valentine’s Day, I attended a wedding this weekend, along with my sister and mom (our hubbies watched the kids). The wedding was for my God sister, Tricia and her new husband Luis. I only had my cell phone, so I didn’t get any pictures of the wedding itself or of the bride and groom. With my limited flash capability, I just took quick shots of some the beautiful table settings and borrowed some pictures from my fantastically fashionable friend, Amy. Love is definitely in the air this week!